Nope. You aren't used to your favorite basketball franchise gutting everything and playing a roster full of 19-21 year olds. For example, rookie Hakeem is still older than Jalen Green. No Rocket fans is used to this unless they have some other favorite team like the Thunder or something.
I believe mentality is as much an innate talent as physical traits. If you watch enough basketball, you can see which player has the kind of vision and processing speed to be a good playmakers... and which player doesn't. It is true on all levels. I saw a middle school girl play for 10 minutes and knew that she would be a great playmaker if she continued to play. Look at Sengun's tape when he was a teenager. A good playmaker isn't just a guy who likes to pass. He sees the floor clearly, knowing not just where everybody is but what everybody is doing, where everybody is moving to. That's why those great playmakers seems to be able to see things that hasn't happened yet. It's a natural talent not everyone has. That's why I don't think Cam will ever be a good playmaker. These guys might be able to do a bit better with coaching asking them to pay attention to making the right pass. But they will never be great at making plays.
Cam is miles better than Jalen at using his body to create space around the basket where it's incredibly likely that the ball goes inside of the basket. Jalen is "better" than Cam is at the top of the key where he can attempt to use his speed and quick first step to get the defender off balance and create separation 14-25 feet away from the rim. The problem with that is that Jalen Green is a terrible shooter so this ability doesn't really matter. Hence why Cam has better averages as a rookie than Jalen ever has. And he still chucks way more than we would all like.
Jalen Green and Cam have the exact same rookie adjusted scoring efficiency of 97 ts+ (adjusted true shooting relative to league mean) The difference is that Jalen as a rookie scored 50% of his fgs unassisted and Cam 30%. Cam also averaged more turnovers than assists. This season their ts% was separated by less than 2% while Jalen scored 60% of his fgs made unassisted and Cam was at 30% as I said before. That massive gap in self creation doesn't account for the small less than 2% difference in their scoring efficiency. That gap in self creation rate is the same gap between Clint Capella and Kevin Durant in self creation and not a single soul will say Clint Capella is a better scorer because his career scoring efficiency is higher. Cam is a worse finisher at the rim flat out. He takes significantly easier attempts at the rim from attacking close outs where the defense is already out of place due to someone with more ball skills like Jalen or Sengun breaking down the defense already or he's scoring in transition with defenders back peddling and not set. And he still has a worse fg% at the rim than Jalen which says to me Green is significantly more skilled at finishing at the rim using awkward angles, body control and touch in traffic.
The problem with comparing Jalen's season average stats is Jekyll & Hyde affect. His bad numbers, roughly 2/3 of the season, are WAY worse than his average and his good numbers, roughly 1/3 of the season, are MUCH better than his average. His biggest problem is consistency.
"Is okay that Jalen's numbers are awful compared to others because his selfish chucker nature leads to him taking a lot of really stupid shots that are very difficult and other players take better shots that are easier"
Buddy consistency is going to be an issue for a 19-22 year old guard asked to do what Jalen does unless they are a transcendent talent like Luka who comes out the gate at 19 already being consistent. Inconsistency is the first thing I expect for a highly talented 19-22 year old guard asked to be a high usage self creator immediately out of the gate in the NBA.
Jalen takes and makes more shots near the rim. Obviously as a starter that would be the case, but you are pushing hypotheticals that are not backed by empirical data. Then you disregard context and nuance for a death grip on a stats argument. Cam is a catch and shoot slasher. He doesnt set the table for anyone but himself and thats working against backups most of the time. From the tape below point me towards what play you consider Whitmore as a better space creator so I can try to make some sense of your position: Dont you find it curious that defenses will NEVER sag off Jalen as a "terrible" shooter?
I agree in part but I would expect his bad numbers to be 1/3 of the season and his good numbers to be 2/3 of the season. I would also expect his inconsistency to be more sporadic with more good games with the fewer bad games mixed in. What transpired was he actually was consistently bad for a long stretch and then consistently good for a much shorter stretch followed by getting worse again to finish the season albeit not as bad as his long bad stretch. This could easily be a bad player just going on a hot streak. This season we have to figure that out. This is his fourth season and he is 22 now. The youth and inexperience excuses are drying up quickly.
Upon further reflection, I owe Steve Francis an apology, I really disrespected him by comparing Jalen Green's first 3 years to Francis. Jalen's never come close to as good as Steve Francis as a Rocket..... or even when he was in Orlando.
Jalen is elite at creating shot for himself, either by creating separation or by blowing by. He also shows some craftiness in finishing in traffic. Right now, he doesn't make the shots he created for himself at a high clip. If he can make shots consistently, it will be hard to stop. That's basically what all elite scorers can do. He also forces things too much in traffic. He thinks he can beat people with his athleticism. That might be true to some extent. But it's still not smart. That's what Udoka kept saying. Make the right read. If he can draw the defense and make the right pass, and can hit shots at a good percentage, he'll be what we hope for. That's the so-called "bucket getter."
Yes Jalen has a problem of not learning when he did his job. He breaks perimeter defenses, draws help defenders, just pass out. No need to do more than that most of the time. That is Jalen's biggest flaw.
Jalen Green will never be a top level starter on a championship team. His ceiling is a spark off the bench, in short bursts, if he can become more consistent
Why people try to compare Jalen to Cam is beyond me. Completely different players, completely different roles, completely different context.
If I'm trading Jalen, I'm looking for maybe 2 picks in the 2028-2030 range. Because right now we have too many guys, and there's a good chance that we package a few of them for a legit star at some point in the next two years. And if all goes to plan, we're in contention in the back half of this decade -- and that's where the bonus picks become super valuable, where a contending team can add lottery talent as their core ages.
They are similar in a lot of ways, both are highly athletic, low skill, low BBIQ guys with a score first, score only mentality. The primary differences are that Cam is a lot stronger, can shoot a basketball, and wasn't immediately given the keys to a franchise and told to chuck as much as they wanted.... and that's a good thing for Cam, his career might be saved as a result.
